Suspected grease thieves can't slip past Leesburg police

Two men skulking behind a Leesburg restaurant rose suspicions that they were about to carry out a greasy plan in the wee hours of the morning.

A truck with no markings backed up behind the Number One Gourmet Buffet at 1704 Citrus Blvd. caught the eye of a passing officer who was aware of several recent cooking-oil thefts, a nationwide trend because the gooey substance can be converted into clean-burning biofuel.

"Apparently they [criminals] can make a good bit of profit from that," Leesburg police Maj. Steve Rockefeller said Wednesday.

Jian Deng Boa, 55, of Melbourne, and Cong Liu, 25, of Flushing, N.Y., were charged Monday with loitering and prowling after the officer observed them behind the building and then returning to the truck about 3:30 a.m. When the officer approached, the men began to drive away but stopped. They said they were there to pick up oil but couldn't provide a work order or a key to the oil container, according to an arrest affidavit. The truck contained four 275-gallon vats and a pump, generator and hoses.

The pair said they worked for an Orlando recycling company, but a restaurant representative arrived and identified a different company as the one contracted to remove the oil.

About 190 million pounds of grease is stolen annually from restaurants, grocery stores and other food-service operations, the National Renderers Association says. That amounts to nearly 8 percent of the total volume of cooking oil that is collected, resulting in more than $39 million in lost revenue to restaurants and legitimate grease haulers.

"While many of the thefts could involve small volumes collected by unsophisticated, individual operators, there is also the possibility that larger, more organized groups or entities — perhaps including rogue biofuel producers — account for a significant volume of stolen grease," according to the association.

This week, the California Legislature, in a move to combat the growing problem, passed a bill to boost penalties for pilfering a restaurant's used cooking oil. Fines for first-time offenders would double from $500 to $1,000 and the state would have more tools to suspend or revoke licenses for certified haulers and renderers who steal grease.